I was able to explain it to a friend who only follows basketball every once in a while. I explained it myself, but touched on almost every point Timmy! posted earlier. Using Timmy!’s points as a guide is great if you feel the need to comment.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, read this closely. There’s a test at the end. I’ll even bold the parts you need to know, to make it easy.

Here’s why Darius received a medical retirement and the aftermath:

1. Darius injured his knee.
2. Darius had microfracture surgery, and had setbacks. He didn’t play for two years.
3. The Blazers doctors found that his cartilage didn’t regrow; this is dangerous. His knee is scraping bone-on-bone.
4. The Blazers doctors recommended he not play again, and retire. They sent a request to the league.
5. The NBA and Darius Miles NBA Players Association sent an independent doctor to investigate.
6. The independent doctor (representing Darius!) said: Darius could play again, but at extreme risk to his knee, likely forcing a full knee replacement later.
7. The NBA allowed his medical retirement due to the severity of his condition. He’s still getting his full paycheck.
8. Darius signed paperwork stating he understands the doctor’s findings.

Time Passes.

9. Darius starts a comeback. Even though he was told by his own (NBA PA) doctor that playing again will likely force knee replacement or reconstruction, he wants to anyway.
10. He plays a few preseason games, with minimal impact.
11. Memphis signs him with just enough time to get 10 suspension games in before the non-guarantee deadline, then plays him in a few games and releases him.
12. News reports say the preseason games count. If a team plays him two more games, just for a minute, Portland loses cap, goes into luxury tax, and non-tax teams get over $200,000 apiece.
13. Portland sends out a private note stating "If you want to play him to play him, great. If you want to play him to screw us over, or make additional money off us, that’s against NBA principles and we’ll fight it"

Now, here’s what you, neutroticblazerfan, said:

It’s obvious his knee problems weren’t career ending, and he wasn’t a typical medical retirement case.
Now, to recap the above: Darius was medically retired because of a long term problem and told he shouldn’t play again, not that he can’t.

In order for what you said to be accurate, that means that suddenly he grew cartilage in his knee. And that he suddenly is no longer playing bone-on-bone.

If those facts are still true, the reason for his medical retirement is still valid. He’s simply ignoring it and playing anyway, to his long-term detriment, and against the advice of the NBA and his own Player’s Association, who supported his retirement.

So every time you say "Look he can play basketball again! Clearly his medical retirement is invalid!", all you’re doing is showing that you did not fully understand the reason for his medical retirement. The fact that he can play is irrelevant to the retirement settlement; the real fact is that he shouldn’t play, for his long-term health. And that’s why he was retired by the league.

Your original post is like telling everyone "I didn’t know the reason for his medical retirement". It’s making you look bad, not the Blazers.

Frome Timmy!

I would be curious to find out just how many and which teams would receive the $200K from us. Combine that with the teams who may have a negative history with KP and you have the teams who would consider signing Miles in order to screw over our cap stuff.

$71.15 million for this season. Teams above that threshold wouldn’t receive a fractional share of any luxury tax monies the Blazers pay out. According to HoopsHype (not exactly the most accurate source but good for a quick check) the following teams would not receive a payment:
-Knicks
-Dallas
-Cleveland
-Boston
-Lakers
-Rockets
-Suns
-Raptors
-Pistons

I’m otta control!

I think that perhaps defending LM is not the best strategy. His job isn’t to be liked, but to run the Blazers efficiently. It is Oden, Roy, and Aldridge’s job to be liked.
The point is that the best strategy would be to agree that the Blazers management did the wrong thing (potentially hurting Miles chance at a comeback) even if you believe they didn’t. I think we all know that logical explanations rarely convince anyone to change their emotional beliefs.
One of Basketball’s myths is the athelete against “the man” , “the man” being managers, owners and especially Stern et al. The Blazers management are “the man” in this case and we all know that they are evil backstabbers who only care about money since they are “the man.” That emotion is powerful and it is why many of us don’t like big city teams where “the man” is even bigger.

I’m sure Larry Miller wouldn’t mind taking the fall in being mistrusted by the nation’s NBA fans. At the same time I’m sure other fans wish he was their team’s president.

My strategy is to agree with them that this was a low move by the Blazers. In doing this they will see that we, the fans, understand the problem. They won’t start hating our loveable Blazers because of managment shenanigens. But they might hate the Blazers for having arrogent, superior, know-it-all fans… (sound like any other team’s fans that you know).

And that is the fact that an anonymous owner was quoted as saying that his team would consider signing D Miles for the sole purpose of screwing w/ Rip City’s cap and Luxury Tax. Larry Miller made it pretty clear that they would have no problem with another team signing Darius if it was because they thought he could play/contribute. They only wanted it to be known that the Blazer’s would not take any punking for the sake of punking lying down. I applaud them for that. IMO, this is why Stern and the NBA aren’t going to do anything about the email..